How Often Should You Pressure Wash Your Home?
Pressure washing is a fast solution after your home starts to look drab and outdated. Within just a few hours, your home can be renewed to its beautiful appearance from nothing more than high pressure water.
You can rent pressure washing equipment at many home improvement stores, or you can call a Memphis pressure washing service. It might be a little more expensive upfront, but you don’t need to deal with returning equipment or run thehome risk of damaging your home due to lack of training or experience.
However, pressure washing can damage your home just as fast as it can clean it. The pressurized water is powerful enough to break windows, damage siding and destroy roof shingles. Therefore, you have to be careful about how often you pressure wash your home and who you hire to do it.
Is it Time to Pressure Wash Your Home?
The question of how often to pressure wash your home is one that depends a lot on where your home is located and environmental factors based on that location.
Most professionals recommend having your home pressure washed every year or, at least every 2 years.
Any pressure washing technician that tells you that more frequent services are needed is just trying to squeeze more money out of you. However, it’s your house, and if you love how it looks shortly after a cleaning, you can pressure wash your home multiple times each year.
By simply touching the wood or siding of your home, you will be able to tell if it’s time for a cleaning. The presence of dirt, mud and grime can stain your home permanently if it isn’t washed off from time to time, so you might have to change from a planned schedule if you start to see excess buildup between cleanings.
Pressure washing can be harmful, but not doing it often enough will leave your home looking dirtier far more than it should. It’s necessary to note that building materials, particularly vinyl siding, are very resistant to stains, mold and mildew. These materials help to protect your home between pressure washings.
Why Pressure Washing is the Preferred Method
Pressure washing is a lot safer than scrubbing the outside of your home because you won’t need to climb up and down a ladder with a rag and a bucket while dragging ahose. Pressure washing can be done from the ground in almost all residential situations.
Mold and mildew are organisms that eat away at exterior surfaces and make their way into your home. They are not very easy to get rid of, yet it is really easy for these organisms to create colonies on your house, particularly on the north side of a home where it usually doesn’t get much sunlight or wind as other sides of your home.
Plus, pressure washing gets rid of more dirt and grime than hand scrubbing.
Factors that Affect Your Home’s Exterior
All of the following items can impact the appearance of a home. All are factors that have to be considered before you hire a professional pressure washer or attempt the job on your own.
CLIMATE
Factors like humidity and extreme weather create a perfect environment for mold and mildew. If you live in a rainy area, you may also have powerful wind and a lot of rain splashing mud onto the exterior of your home.
ENVIRONMENT
Pollen, pollution and mold can be more of a problem in some areas than in others. Living in a rural area or next to an unpaved road will determine what type of environmental factors affect your home more.
HOME CONDITION
If you think it is time to have your home pressure washed, it might be a smart idea to have damaged siding replaced so the high pressure water won’t do more damage. Pressure washing can also expedite a peeling paint issue.
EXTERIOR FINISH
The methods used for pressure washing are unique to your home’s exterior (brick, siding or wood) and the area of the home. For example, for roof cleaning, a pressure washing service will use soft washing instead of pressure washing to protect the roof shingles. Additionally, the results can vary widely based on technique.
When to Pressure Wash Your Home
Determining the best time to have your home pressure washed is just as important as determining how often the service needs to be completed. There are certain times throughout the year when pressure washing would be a total waste of time and money. Other times, however, a professional pressure washing can benefit you in more ways than just appearance.
WEATHER
Don’t waste your money on professional pressure washing in a rainy season. You’ll just end up with mud stains and mildew by the end of the season anyway. Winter, for example, isn’t the best time. Pressure washing is most beneficial at the end of a season, whether it’s spring, summer, fall or winter.
BEFORE/AFTER HOME PROJECTS
Don’t plan to have your home pressure washed while you are having different work done on your home. Rock, brick or siding might not be fastened into place during a repair like it will normally be, which means you run the risk of damaging the area, disrupting the other project and trapping water under building materials.
BEFORE SELLING
Pressure washing is a cost-effective way to increase your home’s curb appeal. It’s the simple solution for all your home’s outside surfaces, including sidewalks, porches, driveways, patio furniture and wood and composite decks.
SUNNY DAYS
Choose a sunny day, but don’t choose one that is blazing hot. This is the perfect condition for the exterior surfaces to dry fast without baking cleaning chemicals onto your home’s surfaces.
If you have an HOA, there might be requirements about how regularly you have your home pressure washed or if you can do it yourself or if you have to hire a professional. You may only be under HOA rules regarding how your home appears, but it’s ultimately up to you to have it looking a certain way.
Pressure washing is one of the most common and most effective methods to clean your entire home exterior. As long as it’s done right, it is safe for a multitude of surfaces and can remove years of dirt and stains.